Despite launching the critically acclaimed The Final Shape for Destiny 2, last year was rough for Bungie with multiple layoffs. The expansion, which wrapped up ten-odd years of story-telling for the franchise, also reportedly sold less at launch than Lightfall despite a much better reception.
Much of this is attributed to how damaging Lightfall was for the franchise. Despite selling well and recording high player counts, it disappointed fans who expected better writing, a more cohesive storyline leading to the battle against The Witness, and more. Interestingly, former community manager and accessibility lead Liana Ruppert revealed on Twitter that leadership wanted the expansion to fail.
“Sucks that leadership wanted it to fail – there were so many elements of Lightfall that could have been monumental had the teams been properly supported. Still proud of everyone a part of it. Swinging around like a manic Titan Spider-Man is still S-tier,” she said, responding to Forbes’ Paul Tassi.
Why leadership sought the expansion’s failure is unknown, but it’s widely acknowledged as a sharp drop in quality after The Witch Queen. It reportedly led to a “sharp drop” in engagement and popularity for the title as Bungie fell short of internal revenue projections by 45 percent.
Destiny 2 is currently in the middle of Episode 3: Heresy, with Act 2 slated to arrive soon. It also has a new expansion, Codename Apollo, coming this Summer. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.
Sucks that leadership wanted it to fail – there were so many elements of Lightfall that could have been monumental had the teams been properly supported 🙏🏻 Still proud of everyone a part of it. Swinging around like a manic titan Spider-Man is still S-tier 🫡
— Liana Ruppert (@DirtyEffinHippy) February 28, 2025
